I Must Be Crazy

Oh wait, that's already been confirmed. But now I'm considering kicking it up a notch in my marathon training. I had written out a pretty beginner marathon training program and envisioned myself struggling through every step, but now I have this new confidence (based on how well I felt after 14), and I'm wondering if maybe I could kick it up to a different level of training. I'm thinking that as long as I listen to my body and take precautions to prevent injury, that maybe I can indeed handle it.

My friend, Robin, sent me a link to SmartCoach from Runner''s World. So I entered in my data, and voila, a training plan. Now, while I do like following training plans, I can rarely do them exactly due to my somewhat heavy race schedule, so I will translate this into something that works in my own training spreadsheet... but basicly it comes down to adding tempo runs and speedwork (which I admittedly never do) and ramping up my long runs quicker. This plan actually has me running three 20-mile runs. I'm thinking I should just go for it, and if it becomes too much of a struggle, or I'm feeling pain in places I didn't know existed, then I'll pull back some.

Am I crazy? It's my first marathon. Should I really push for THREE separate 20-mile runs? Will I over-tax my body? (Side note: I am VERY good about taking 2 days of complete rest - usually Wednesday and Sunday.) Do you follow a training plan? Do you do speedwork/tempo runs?

Yeah, pretty sure I am crazy. I do believe I have to go get in 7 miles if I'm going to start this out right!

(Another side note - you'll see where I input my info that I chose a 13 week training plan... that's only because I'm already 7 weeks into my training. I certainly don't recommend ramping up all the way to a marathon in 13 weeks.)